China Sets Sights On Apple, Nvidia And Other US Tech Companies As Trade Tensions Rise

by Adam Eckert Benzinga Staff Writer

Zinger Key Points

Chinese officials are building a list of U.S. tech companies that can be probed over antitrust concerns.
China is reportedly looking to target U.S. tech companies in order to gain leverage in trade negotiations with the U.S.
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China is looking to target U.S. tech companies in order to gain leverage in trade negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump.

What To Know: According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials are building a list of U.S. tech companies that can be probed over antitrust concerns, including Nvidia Corp NVDA and Alphabet Inc GOOG.

The Nvidia probe came after the Biden administration ramped up export controls on high-end semiconductors to China, and the Google probe came immediately after an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods went into effect last week.

China is also targeting Apple Inc AAPL, Broadcom Inc AVGO and Synopsys Inc SNPS.

The goal is to influence tech executives who have become close to Trump as trade tensions rise.

Beijing is also mulling potential tactics in response to the tariffs that Trump has imposed on Chinese goods.

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"China is on a chip-gathering exercise,” Trivium China’s Tom Nunlist told the WSJ. “They want to come to the table to negotiate and need something to play with.”

China has strengthened regulatory tools in recent years including adding an “unreliable entity list” and amending laws to tighten rules on anticompetitive acquisitions. Chinese officials reportedly aim to get the attention of some of the top tech executives who appear to be close to Trump, including those who sat next to him on Inauguration Day like Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook.

Chinese tech companies typically criticize Apple because of the fees it charges developers for in-app services. Apple has said its policies help ensure that the apps remain safe.

The report indicates that Chinese regulators have started taking a closer look at Apple in recent weeks as some view Apple’s fees as “unreasonably high” and believe its app rules could hurt competition.

Price Action: The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK was up more than 1.5% on Monday at last check.

The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ QQQ was up about 1.25%.

The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF MAGS was up about 1.15% at the time of writing, according to Benzinga Pro.